Danh Vo: We the People

Danh Vo is a Vietnamese artist who created the piece We the People in 2013. The piece is replica of the statue of liberty, that is equal in the exact scale, yet is unassembled. The pieces when viewed unassembled remind us of that monuments are only materials. While these materials are representative of something much larger, they are only physical manifestations of ideas. Because Vo leaves his replica of the statue of liberty unassembled it is a reminder that the idea of the monument is much more strong than it’s materiality. This idea is taken a step further, because while the piece has all the pieces to create the statue, they are never exhibited all together. The piece was exhibited in multiple locations recently in Chicago. At the University of Chicago history museum, the pieces of the statue of liberty were surrounded by other fragments of monuments from around the world. Which causes one to question the notion of monumentality and that even great empires are capable of falling.